Grab Inc., Southeast Asia’s online-to-offline (O2O) mobile platform, has launched its innovation arm Grab Ventures.
With program partners including Singapore government agencies, IMDA, Enterprise Singapore, EDB and EDBI, Grab Ventures aims to discover and develop Southeast Asia’s next-generation tech leaders to build new businesses and help growth-stage startups scale across the sub-continent.
Grab Ventures will work with private sector firms and government agencies in Singapore and across the region to help growth-stage technology companies develop and scale technologies that will solve transportation, logistics, food and payments challenges in Southeast Asia.
It will also allow Grab to develop new technology capabilities and build fast-growing businesses in-house, as Grab continues to add new services to its O2O mobile platform.
Grab Ventures will also launch “Velocity”, an accelerator program for growth-stage startups looking to expand across Southeast Asia, leveraging Grab’s vast regional footprint, technical and market-specific operational expertise, varied ecosystem of products, such as GrabPay and GrabRewards, and network of drivers, delivery partners and merchants.
Companies interested in applying for the Velocity accelerator can visit ventures.grab.com for more information.
The innovation arm will seek to partner 8-10 growth-stage startups over the next 24 months and may invest in select startups that exhibit strong synergies with Grab.
The portfolio currently includes GrabCycle, a marketplace for multiple personal mobility partners; Kudo, an Indonesian Online-to-Offline (O2O) platform; Drive.ai, a provider of AI solutions for autonomous vehicles; and iKaaz, an emerging markets mobile payments platform.
FinSMEs
06/06/2018